literature.cafe chat

Haven't gotten much reading done, been extremely busy with Sublinks stuff and playing baldurs gate 3. I did make a blog post about my issues with lemmy and why I am focusing on sublinks and the lemmy devs unfortunately dismissed all the criticism I had and then proceeded to tell off the Beehaw admins and told them to leave lemmy. It's unfortunate. I am proud of my blog post though.

I am still here, paying for the server. Just doing stuff in the background as I can. My DMs are always open too, even if I seem away I promise I'm not. I'm currently working on accessibility auditing the Sublinks frontend, planning on starting a test environment later tonight for that. 😅

I read Gabe’s post (😄) and am also working through Quenby Olson’s Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons). I’ve been enjoying it so far but it’s definitely a slower read than I was looking for at the moment.

Do graphic novels count? I recently decided to get back into comics and have been enjoying them immensely. “Do a Powerbomb” was so fun, and now I’m reading “68” which is an intense Vietnam war zombie apocalypse recommended by another lemmng, different mood but really fun

Im listening to Dune, i watched the second film the other day and decided i would listen to the book now.

I’m trying to get into the Popul Vu — it’s a piece of Mayan literature that covers their cosmology. Interesting and challenging story telling. Does anyone have experience with it?

There was a discussion a while back on lemmy.nz about a childhood classic by an NZ author called Under the Mountain.

I was in the library the other day and saw it, so I thought I'd read it. While I know of the book, I wasn't sure I'd ever actually read it. So now I am, though I haven't got far enough through to tell if I've read it before.

I started Blood Meridian by McCarthy. It was a Christmas gift from an American friend. I had never heard about it before then, and I went into it more or less blind. It’s a much bleaker read than I was expecting, but the language is keeping me hooked: it has been a while since last time I had to check the meaning of an English word, and this me taught me plenty.

On the side, I’m reading a German young adult romance novel to learn better German. It’s a light read, to nicely compensate and lift my spirits a bit.

I just started Catfish Lullaby by A.C. Wise. I read a short story by them in a horror anthology a while back, and liked it enough to want to give their other work a try.

I just finished both Tulipomania (about the Dutch tulip craze of the 1700s - not as exciting as I thought it would be, lol) and Inside Out and Back Again (about a young girl’s experience of fleeing Vietnam and landing in Alabama as a refugee). I really loved Inside Out and Back Again. I had been putting it off because I thought it would be long and/or heavy, but it’s all poetry and was a very fast read.

With poetry on the brain, I moved on to Milk & Honey, from “Instapoet” Rupi Kaur. It reminded me of the poems you used to find in zines in the 90s/early 2000s, but without any alt subtext. So…kind of basic “young woman finds out she has to love herself” poems. I guess I would have appreciated that earlier in life, but I found them kind of uninspiring.

Oh! I also just finished The Bear and the Nightingale - a really fun read I stayed up late to devour. It’s a Russian medieval fantasy/fairytale, set in a realistic-feeling household and wider Russian imperial and Christian context. There are spirits everywhere, but also tension with those converting to Christianity and neglecting the traditional spirits - which has a lot of unintended consequences. Spooky, funny, grim, and action-packed, all in one book.

Sorry if this comment here is inappropriate but I have a question for a Mod or the kind soul that runs this instance.

Could you please message me privately so I can ask a question?